'97 SH w/ 145k miles...

A little while ago I started to develop a squeal/whine in my tranny, particularly more of a whine during startup but slowly getting worse. It used to just happen when the clutch was disengaged (ie, in gear or in neutral), and would go away when I put the clutch in, but now it doesn't seem to make as much of a difference. Also, the squealing noise is consistent with engine RPM and not related to gear position; it's one tone, but makes a short, cyclical squealing noise. So as engine RPM increases, the repetition gets faster; ie from 1k-3k I would hear: "ee......ee.....ee...ee..ee..ee.ee.ee.ee". Usually above around 3.5k you can't hear it anymore. I also noticed the other day sitting in my driveway just after startup when it was making the noise, it would change tones depending on what gear I selected: ie gears 1 & 3 were higher-pitched, but choosing gear 4 changed it to a lower tone. I'm guessing some kind of bearing? Sorry guys, don't know much about tranny's yet.

Also out of curiosity, would not enough free play in the clutch pedal potentially cause something like this if the clutch were never completely disengaging, or would that just wear on the clutch?

 

Any help guys?

 

Sounds like it might be the throwout bearing.